(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/23/05) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on local and national leaders to address growing anti-Muslim sentiment in our society following an apparently intentional desecration of the Quran in Nashville, Tenn.

CAIR said Islamic leaders in Nashville reported Wednesday that an Arabic-language copy of Islam's revealed text was torn, burned, covered with excrement and left outside an East Nashville housing complex that is home to many Muslim families.

As word of the desecration spread through the Islamic community, dozens of Muslims reportedly gathered at the site of the desecration to express their outrage.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Lt. Steve Hewitt told CAIR Wednesday night: "Clearly we have to be open-minded to the possibility it is a hate crime." He said it was still too early in the investigation to make a final determination as to motive and that he has informed the local office of the FBI about the case.

"It would be difficult to come up with a scenario in which this incident was not bias-motivated," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "Our nation's leaders need to address what seems to be a growing level of intolerance and anti-Muslim sentiment in American society." Awad asked people of conscience in Tennessee and throughout the nation to repudiate anti-Muslim bigotry by obtaining and reading a Quran.

CAIR made that same request earlier this month when burned copies of the Quran were found outside a Virginia mosque. Local police and the FBI are treating that incident as a possible hate crime.